Although the portable console market has entered into an eternal struggle against smartphones, it seems that NVIDIA held that there is room...

Although the portable console market has entered into an eternal struggle against smartphones, it seems that NVIDIA held that there is room for one more contestant. During CES 2013, it was announced Project Shield, an Android handheld gaming device, will have compatibility with the Big Picture Mode of Steam. During the presentation, NVIDIA showed the console, which itself brings a joystick and a touch screen of five inches wide. Project Shield runs Android Jelly Bean and has a Tegra 4 (announced at CES 2013) chip, which should provide graphics worthy of the current generation of consoles, with the advantage of being portable. Furthermore, the device has a battery of 33 Wh, which will provide up to 5 hours of gaming or 24 hours of HD video output.

Besides the quality of Android games that were demonstrated, one of the points that caught everyone's attention during the presentation of Project Shield, was the possibility of using the handheld together to Steam. Project Shield can access the Steam interface via its Big Picture Mode, accessing games installed on a PC. Through a private network, you can use your portable NVIDIA Shield to stream game on the screen of the gadget, if your computer has a GeForce GTX.

To the date of this writing, games like Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Borderlands 2, Battlefield 3 and Assassins Creed 3 were shown as compatible for streaming in Project Shield. Since the console has HDMI outputs, you can play your Steam games on any TV with the necessary connection. NVIDIA has not announced pricing or an exact date for the launch of Project Shield, only that the plan is for this device to reach the market in the first half of 2013.